Talousuutiset

> Ilkkakuusi

Banker Accused of $25 Million Fraud Arose From a Gilded Legacy. Andrew Caspersen, the banker accused of stealing $25 million, seemed to have it all, at least on paper.

Scion of a family that built and sold a finance company for billions, Caspersen went from Princeton University to Harvard Law School, where students can read rare books in the Caspersen Room or study in the Caspersen Student Center. Until Monday, he was a managing director at PJT Partners Inc.
Castle di Sismano, Umbria, Italy Listed at $8.3 Million. There are plenty of castles for sale across Europe, but few provide the opportunity for prospective owners to play the role of a feudal lord.

QuickTake Saudi Arabia’s Strains Saudi consumers withdrew and spent less money in February, according to central bank data released on Monday.
Most Passengers on Hijacked EgyptAir Flight Are Released. A hijacker claiming to be wearing an explosive belt forced a domestic EgyptAir flight to land in Cyprus, then released most of the more than 50 people on board.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said the takeover of the aircraft was not linked to terrorism. Anastasiades didn’t give details on the possible motive for the seizure of the flight bound for Cairo from Alexandria, but a Cypriot government official said the hijacker was most likely motivated by a personal relationship.
U.S. Drops Apple Case After Getting Into Terrorist’s iPhone. The U.S. said it has gained access to the data on the iPhone used by a terrorist and no longer needs Apple Inc.’s assistance, marking an end to a legal clash that was poised to redraw boundaries between personal privacy and national security in the mobile Internet age.

The Justice Department said a week ago that it was approached by an unidentified third party about a possible method to get into the phone.
Le Pen’s Nemesis May Offer Template to Defeat European Populism. Forget Paris, Bordeaux or Mediterranean Marseille.

The key to France’s next presidential election lies in the country’s downtrodden north. Hauts-de-France, a region of almost 6 million people across the Channel from England, is both France’s most northerly province and its most deprived.
Dollar Five-Month Low on Fed Lifts Commodities, Emerging Markets. The dollar sank to a five-month low, commodities surged with emerging markets, and government bonds advanced as central banks from the U.S. to Norway indicated a willingness to keep monetary policy accommodative.

The U.S. currency fell a second day after the Federal Reserve scaled back expectations for the path of interest-rate increases. Dollar-denominated oil, copper and zinc all jumped at least 1.6 percent, with Brent trading above $40 a barrel, helping the MSCI Asia Pacific Index post its biggest increase in two weeks. South Korea’s won rose the most since 2011. Sovereign bonds rallied across Europe and almost all of Asia as Treasuries climbed.

The Bank of England Has Nowhere to Go on Rates. The Bank of England will probably keep its key rate at a record low on Thursday, where it’s been for seven years, as the threat of a British exit from the European Union takes center stage.

QuickTake Will Britain Leave the EU? These charts show how the U.K.’s economic outlook has evolved since the Monetary Policy Committee’s February meeting. The central bank will publish its March interest-rate decision at noon in London alongside the minutes of its gathering. The good news is that global market jitters have abated and wage growth has ticked up.
Even in Finland, universal basic income is too good to be true. Finland is not planning to scrap its existing benefit system and give everyone an unconditional grant of €800 a month – contrary to what some recent headlines may have told you.

What it is planning promises to be an interesting policy experiment involving a sample of the population, which may or may not include some form of basic income paid to all participants: which in turn may not be unconditional, and may be worth a lot less than €800. Still the general excitement was testimony to widespread interest in the basic income idea.
Sovereignty, autonomy and Britain’s relationship with Europe. The “Brexit buccaneers” (Polly Toynbee, 23 February) would suggest that an out vote will enable us to regain our sovereignty. That is a fantasy. As a nation, with the encouragement of successive governments, we have ceded sovereignty to a variety of external powers, including the EU, over many years. Major, foreign-owned multinationals determine levels of investment and jobs in this country as a consequence of decades of British national institutions and businesses being privatised or sold to the highest bidder.

It is an illusion to believe that leaving Europe will somehow restore national sovereignty when our energy security is largely dependent on the French and Chinese governments deciding whether or not Hinkley C is built; Canadian multinationals decide how many aerospace jobs there will be in Northern Ireland; and Indian entrepreneurs preside over the survival of our steel industry.
Michael Howard: EU is flawed and failing and we should leave. Britain should vote to leave the “flawed and failing” European Union, the former Conservative leader Michael Howard has said.

He becomes one of the most senior Tories to reject David Cameron’s EU reform deal. Lord Howard challenged a series of dire warnings from ministers about the dangers of Britain leaving the EU by saying that, as the world’s fifth largest economy, Britain should have the confidence to negotiate a strong deal.
G20: Market rally continues, as US GDP growth better than expected - as it happened.

Certainly, the marked drop in overall business and consumer confidence across the Eurozone to an 8-month low heightens concern about faltering growth. However, price developments in the survey did offer a little bit of good news for the ECB.
Millions of UK workers stuck in wrong job, study shows. Millions of UK workers are stuck in the wrong job or working fewer hours than they would like, according to a report warning that this army of underemployed people are blocking opportunities for those outside the labour market.

The Resolution Foundation thinktank said that 5m extra hours of work a week are needed to soak up employees’ demands for more work. Moving those underemployed into longer hours would free up their part-time roles for new entrants, including those currently defined as economically inactive – many of whom have health problems or caring responsibilities. The analysis is being published before a wider-scale Resolution Foundation report later this week on how the UK can achieve the government’s goal of full employment. The latest official labour market figures put unemployment at its lowest level for more than a decade at 5.1%, but employment experts highlighted signs of slack remaining, including a slowdown in wage growth and a drop in job-to-job moves.

Barclays set to exit African business. The bank also sees extra risks of corruption and misconduct in Africa. "Barclays does not own all of the equity, but it owns 100 per cent of the risk if something goes wrong," said one of the people. The decision to pull out of Africa will reinforce Mr Staley's strategy of refocusing Barclays on its core British and American markets. Last month, he announced plans to further trim the investment bank, cutting up to 1,200 staff by closing smaller operations in Asia, Brazil, Europe and Russia.

One benefit of selling out of Africa is that it could address worries about Barclays' capital.
Trump vs. Clinton: The election no one wants-—commentary. America's political, academic, business, and media elites will launch studies trying to understand why Americans have lost faith in their leaders and their institutions. Most of them will come to agree with President Obama: Americans distrust our leaders because our leaders devote too little effort to explaining their greatness in terms that average Americans can grasp.
US Q4 revised GDP up 1.0% vs 0.4% growth expected. Trump's Debate Was a Disaster. If Voters Notice.
Stocks Pare Gains as Dollar Strengthens, Treasuries Fall on GDP. Cameron Says Supporters of EU Exit Are Being ‘Extremely Vague’
Clinton Regains Air of Inevitability With South Carolina Win - Bloomberg Politics.